SDE II

**About Porter** Porter is building the operating system for intra\-city logistics in India. With **\~20 million orders per month** , **500K\+ daily\-active drivers** , and rapid scale ahead ( **1\.5x growth expected next year** ), we solve complex real\-world problems at massive scale, balancing speed, reliability, and cost efficiency in a highly operational environment. **Role Overview** **High\-Ownership Engineer \| Scalable Systems Builder \| Future System Leader** As an SDE\-2 at Porter, you are a **core builder of production systems at scale** . You don’t just ship features — you build durable, reliable components that power millions of real\-world transactions. You are trusted with: * Owning meaningful system components * Designing robust solutions to non\-trivial problems * Making engineering trade\-offs with business context * Raising the quality bar of the codebase This role is about **strong independent ownership with growing system influence** . You are expected to think beyond tasks — toward reliability, scale, performance, and user impact. **Key Responsibilities** **Design \& Build at Scale** * Design and implement scalable services and modules within large distributed systems. * Drive Low\-Level Design independently and contribute meaningfully to High\-Level Design discussions. * Perform performance analysis and reason about scale, failure modes, and trade\-offs. * Build systems that are reliable, observable, and cost\-aware. * Write code that stands the test of time — modular, extensible, production\-ready. This is not feature execution — this is system construction. **Own Critical Components** * Own services or subsystems end\-to\-end — from design to production to operational excellence. * Be accountable for uptime, performance, and maintainability of owned systems. * Actively improve monitoring, alerting, and operational hygiene. * Lead root cause analysis and implement preventive fixes. - Ownership here means **technical accountability** , not task completion. **Engineering Excellence** * Apply strong fundamentals in data structures, algorithms, and system design. * Leverage AI tools to accelerate development while validating outputs rigorously. * Anticipate edge cases and design for real\-world chaos (load spikes, partial failures, latency constraints). * Raise the quality bar in code reviews and engineering discussions. **Business \& Product Impact** * Understand how your systems affect driver experience, customer reliability, and cost efficiency. * Make trade\-offs that balance speed, reliability, and frugality. * Use metrics to evaluate the success of your systems. You are not just solving engineering problems — you are solving business problems through engineering. **Team Impact** * Mentor SDE\-1s and help them ramp faster. * Influence code quality standards within your pod. * Collaborate effectively with Product, Data, and Operations. * Proactively surface risks and suggest improvements. You are a **pillar of your pod’s execution strength** . **What We're Looking For** **Experience** * **2–5 years of software development experience.** * Experience shipping production systems. * Exposure to distributed systems or backend services at scale. * Experience working in fast\-paced, high\-ownership environments (startups or scale\-ups preferred). **Technical Skills** * Strong fundamentals in **data structures, algorithms, and object\-oriented design** . * Familiarity with modern backend stacks, distributed systems, and cloud infrastructure. * Strong understanding of engineering operations: monitoring, alerting, reliability, and performance tuning. **AI \& First\-Principles Thinking** * Ability to use AI as a productivity tool, not a crutch. * Strong judgment to validate AI\-generated outputs and reason independently. * Comfortable breaking down complex problems to fundamentals rather than pattern\-matching solutions. **Leadership \& Mindset** * Strong sense of ownership and accountability (Own It). * User\-first thinking with an understanding of business impact (User Obsession). * Bias for action and execution in ambiguous situations (Keep Moving). * Collaborative, empathetic, and resilient under pressure. * Desire to raise the bar for talent, quality, and execution. **Why Join Porter?** * Build systems that operate at **massive real\-world scale** . * Solve unique logistics and operational challenges. * Work in a culture that values **ownership, frugality, speed, and impact** . * Significant scope to grow beyond SDE 2 into technical or leadership paths.